Basic HTML Version
Temperate in Labor, May 18
Temperate in All Things
Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat
and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh
under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it
is his portion.
Ecclesiastes 5:18
That time is spent to the very best account which is directed to the
establishment and preservation of sound physical and mental health.... It
is an easy matter to lose the health, but it is difficult to regain it.... We
cannot afford to dwarf or cripple a single function of the mind or body
by overwork or abuse of any part of the living machinery.
Those who make great exertions to accomplish just so much work in
a given time, and continue to labor when their judgment tells them they
should rest, are never gainers. They are living on borrowed capital. They
are expending the vital force which they will need at a future time. And
when the energy they have so recklessly used is demanded, they fail for
want of it.... Their time of need has come, but their physical resources
are exhausted. Everyone who violates the laws of health must sometime
be a sufferer to a greater or less degree.
Much of the fatigue and labor under which they are wearing and
growing old are not burdens that God has bound upon them, but which
they have brought upon themselves by doing the very things the Word of
God has told them not to do.
It is not our duty to place ourselves where we shall be overworked.
Some may at times be placed where this is necessary, but it should be
the exception, not the rule.... If we honor the Lord by acting our part,
He will on His part preserve our health.... By practicing temperance in
eating, in drinking, in dressing, in labor, and in all things, we can do for
ourselves what no physician can for us.
* * * * *
Do not try to crowd into one day the work of two.
[143]
149